“A”is for Addiction

By Ward Allan Yont

The only real solution to our collective condition lies in addressing the issue of addiction, and the only way to excavate addiction’s roots is to understand their origins, expose them and realize what addiction can never, will never offer.

“Peace is an attribute in you. You cannot find it outside. Illness is some form of external searching. Health is inner peace. It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without and capable through your acceptance of miracles, of correcting the condition proceeding from lack of love in others.” (p.18:5:8-12, ACIM)

Addiction is an outward search for an inner sense of loss. This sense of loss occurs whenever fear enters the mind. Further, all healing is essentially the release from fear. This is why it is so imperative to make a clear distinction between love and fear. Only one of them is real: love.

When the mind experiences fear, it immediately turns its attention towards seeking to reclaim what it feels it lost from where it believes it was lost-the outer world. The mind then sets out to regain what it believes it lost-a sense of innocence, identity, peace, joy and happiness. We scour the world, seeking to reclaim that sense of wholeness and identity we feel we lost. This is the root of addiction! The reason why addictions are so insatiable is because inner peace cannot be attained through the outer-world! This is the law of consciousness, so get used to it.

Addiction is merely a thought system based upon fear and loss, so we should look employ loveas the remedy. And it is the remedy. The next question is, how do we use love in a world full of people so often committed to fear-based thinking? There is an answer, but that answer has to be devoid of time and expectation.

“Atonement is the one need in this world that is universal. To perceive yourself this way is the only way in which you can find happiness in the world. That is because it is the acknowledgement that you are not in this world, for the is unhappy.” (p.97:5:5-7, ACIM)

Arch Street Press is part of the Institute for Leadership Education, Advancement and Development (I-LEAD), a Pennsylvania-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit with offices in Bryn Mawr and Reading. It has served as a key force for community leadership development since 1995, fostering a degreed citizenry to tangibly improve and sustain the economic, civic and social well-being of communities.